Maha Minister Cautions Against PM's Blackout Call

Mumbai: Expressing caution over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal for a 9-minute blackout at 9 p.m. on Sunday, senior Maharashtra Congress leader and Energy minister Nitin Raut has warned that the sudden outage could hit the power-grid with trippings.

Raut said that the current lockdown for the past nine days already changed the state's power equations pertaining to power generation and supply.

While the state's power demand has come down heavily from 23,000 MW to 13,000 MW daily, the industry consumption is zero and only the domestic and emergency demands are being catered to.

"If there is a sudden further drop in the demand when people switch off the lights all at once, power stations may go on high frequency. It could result in feeder trippings in the grid," Raut said in a statement late on Friday night.

For a huge state like Maharashtra with a massive demand, this could also result in multi-state grid failure and disrupt power supply around the country.

In case of such a scenario, it would take at least 12-16 hours to restore power supply.

"I appeal to people to keep your lights on and light lamps or candles. This will ensure uninterrupted functioning of the grid and smooth power supply," Raut said.

In Maharashtra, the top power consumers are Mumbai, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Nashik and other towns.